


Stereotypically Feminine

by Gremlin_of_Space



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fatal Medical Condition (kinda), Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Marriage, Mid Spyfall part 2, anaemia, anaemia kills Time Lords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27738151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gremlin_of_Space/pseuds/Gremlin_of_Space
Summary: How stereotypically feminine. To be anaemic. Always swooning and fainting, waiting for a strong man to catch her.The Doctor was actually really good in keeping track of her medication but...the Master, his plan, it’s pushed the Doctor off her groove and she forgot to take her medication.Will she get her pills? Or, will she end up wasting away like so many Time Ladies before her?
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 54





	Stereotypically Feminine

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a convo on a Doctor Who server. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!!

This is the first body she has had where she’s iron deficient. 

The Doctor knew that females (or the equivalent) of all species were more likely to be lacking in several key vitamins and minerals. Gallifreyans were one such species. 

Those short yet blissful fifteen hours of post-regeneration high gave no indication of the condition and it was only when she was in the midst of dealing with Krasko that her vision swam when she threw the suitcase. 

It took a solid few minutes of laying down in the motel bed to realise what was happening. She soniced herself and the trusty piece of equipment beeped the results. 

_ How stereotypical,  _ was her thought. So, what was she going to do? Perhaps she would get an injection? The thirty-fourth century did regular shots, but a yearly dose wouldn’t be enough for a Time Lord. Her species consumed vitamins and minerals with ruthless vigour, especially the ‘life bearing’ females. If not properly attended to, it could become life threatening, one of the few things that could kill a Time Lord. 

_ Missy was anaemic if I remember correctly? _

So, she started to take a high dosage of iron, twice a day in the form of little red pills. Graham, having been married to a nurse, kept an eye on her and even Yaz took it as a personal mission to make sure the Doctor took her medication. Some days she forgot or couldn’t take them, having left the small container in the TARDIS and assumed the adventure wouldn’t cross over into the night. 

This current adventure was one such problem. 

Graham had forgotten to remind her and Yaz was still in shock from her interaction with the Kasaavin dimension. Ryan, bless him, also forgot, and O didn’t know about her anaemia. 

_ The Master didn’t know.  _

By her immaculate internal time keeping, the Doctor had realised it had been nearly forty-eight hours since her last iron tablet and gods, was she feeling it. 

She was getting tired and a headache was forming. Running seemed to take a little more effort and Rassilon help her when she had to get up out of a chair. Mr. Babbage made a comment about how even such extraordinary women still had those feminine flaws. 

The Doctor wasn’t a violent woman, but she would make an exception. O knew about the sexist comments she had been subjected to. All those men looking down upon her, dumbing their speech down so she could ‘understand’ (the satisfaction she felt when she saved the day was always intense). 

She always found herself, at the end of those hard days, opening up WhatsApp and sending O a message. Though her last rant, this time about C, had been a little more personal, more intense. 

_ She was sitting on his couch, curled up into the corner with a mug of tea in her hands. O sat in the opposite corner, nervously leaning forward towards her.  _

_ “You look pale,” he stated and the Doctor rolled her eyes.  _

_ “If you’re gonna ask me if it’s ‘that time of the month’ I will lose it.” She put the enamel mug to her lips, watching her friend’s reaction. Honestly, she wasn’t sure where that sudden bout of aggression came from and neither did O, judging by his confused, deer-like expression.  _

_ “I’m-I’m sorry if I caused offence. I didn’t- _

_ “No, no, it’s fine. I’m just,” she thought for a moment. “I’m just really tired. Of all of this.” She made a motion, her hand waving from the crown of her head to her toes.  _

_ “All the…sexism, I’m guessing?” She hummed an affirmative and stretched out her legs across the sofa, her feet hanging off the edge so as to not touch the human. O surprised her by picking up her sock clad feet, and putting them into his lap. He started to press his fingers into her arches and the Doctor let out a groan of approval. “It’s hard, isn’t it. Being a woman I mean.”  _

_ “Very hard,” she agreed and melted into O’s firm touch. “Didn’t pin C as a sexist but looking at his treatment of you, I’m not surprised.” O’s head jerked up at this.  _

_ “What’d he say to you?” _

_ “Oh, you know, the usual. ‘You can’t be the Doctor, the Doctor’s a man.’ Gods, this wouldn’t happen if they kept U.N.I.T. Have you met Kate Stewart before?” There was a coy little glint in his eyes that the Doctor was unfamiliar with. It didn’t belong on O’s face, sweet, little O. It would’ve been something…something the Master would look like.  _

_ “I haven’t. Heard of her but never had the pleasure. Why don’t you tell me about her?” _

_ And so the Doctor did. She told him about Kate’s father and then the work she did with the woman. O was an attentive listener whilst he eased the tension in her feet. His hands moved slowly up to her ankle and then up her calf, making his tentative way to dangerous territory.  _

“The first time I sleep with somebody in this body and it had to be him,” moaned the Doctor as she in between sips from her glass of water. At first, she thought the headache must’ve been from a lack of fluids but now that she’s drinking (her species was ever so good at absorbing water) she came to the conclusion that no, dehydration was not the cause. It was this blasted deficiency and to top it all off, she decided to go old school, using telepathy to contact the Master. 

That…really didn’t help, having him inside her head. He was too chaotic, too forceful (though this body did seem to like it rough) and the sudden waves of exhaustion and fatigue weren’t helping. She wanted this done and dusted so she could pick up her fam, drop off Ada home and get a very large shot of iron. 

He was waiting for her, his body creating a silhouette against the lights of a burning Paris. Her head was swimming from the run up the stairs and black spots dotting her vision. She learnt forward, bracing her hands on her knees as she fought against fainting. The Master wouldn’t let her live that down for years to come. 

“It’s cold up here.” Her voice was jovial and conversation though inside, she felt terrified. The fainting spells would worsen and in a few hours, her organs would start to shut down from a lack of oxygen. “Worse than Jodrell Bank.” 

“Did I ever apologise for that?” She was close by him and looked over the railing and then back up at him. 

“No.”  _ Oh, bad move, Doctor.  _ The sudden change in perspective made her feel even more dizzy and she clenched the railings to ground herself.  _ I am not fainting in front of him.  _

The Master looked briefly down at her white knuckles and the Doctor quickly evaded. She pushed herself off and walked around him. 

“How’s the shoulder?” She didn’t care, she really didn’t (alright, she did, he was her ‘best enemy’ that got shot) and found a new section of railing, a metre or so between them. 

“Painful,” he spat out and the Doctor repressed a shiver. It was getting really,  _ really _ cold now.

“I don’t like what you’re wearing.” Insults, insults were good. She could focus on a verbal fight/flirt, not the rising panic of ‘I’m very close to dying if I don’t get some iron’. Her anxiety was building, her hearts pumping the shitty blood she had. “Or the company you keep. How have you managed that? You’re not exactly their Aryan archetype.” It was a low blow, a very low blow even for them and she was interested. 

“Tiny tectonic psychic perception filter.”  _ Oh no, they don’t know _ . Her plan was going wrong, very, very wrong. She needed to stop Noor and Ada. Gods, how was she such an idiot?! “Learnt it at school. Let’s people see what they wanted to see.”

_ So, is that how you seduced me the other night? Let me see what I wanted to see? Or did I know it was you, deep down. You were getting lax, Master, O would never smirked your smirk.  _

“I’m assuming it was you who hijacked the MI6 car?” Her anger seemed to give her clarity. 

“That was fun.”

“And assassinated C?” 

“Mondrafion laser rifle. One shot.” He was proud of that.  _ How in the name of the Other am I attracted to you?  _ He was walking over to her now, her hearts fluttering and her skin slightly warming. He gave her a predatory look that made her knees weak (she was telling herself it was just the anaemia) and soon, the Master was face-to-face, mere inches from her. “Still got the eyes for it.” 

There was a tense moment, neither willing to look away. Her eyes flicked down to his lips and then back to his eyes, that little glint sparkling. She wanted to kiss him so bad.  _ The Nazis will destroy you.  _

The Master was the one to break the small moment of peace by walking away from her, his back turned against her. The Doctor took her chance and slipped the small phone into her hand and typed behind her back, cancelling the plan.  _ Keep him interested.  _

“Why were the Kasaavin assassinating spies?” The wind was picking up and her hair fluttered around her face. Search lights lit up their spot now and then, the bright light shining into her face and making her feel disoriented when it left. The black spots were getting worse. 

“Earth’s intelligence services started to realise their presence.” His voice was low, just like O’s had been the other night, coaxing her to enjoy herself for once. 

“So what? You brought the Kasaavin to Earth?”  _ That’s very much like you. Is this another Auton’s scheme? You’re wearing leather gloves like last time.  _

“They were already here.” He gave a deep chuckle. “I just persuaded them we had interests in common. The Kasaavin are embedded across the whole of this universe. Spies from another dimension.”

_ How have I not come across them before? _

The Master was turning around, watching her every move. She had finished sending the text a while ago and her phone was back into her trouser pocket. “As I said to Mr Barton, think of them as Russia but bigger. Sleeper agents everywhere, waiting to be activated. Amassing information if they need to attack and, I mean, you know me-“ 

He gave another chuckle and the Doctor really did have to question if she truly knew him. He had lied so many times, Missy appearing to be ready for change and then backstabbing her, as usual. This Spymaster was a worry, too erratic and yet just as predictable.

“I can’t help myself. Got to stick my oar in.” The snort he gave made the Doctor bristle. How dare he use her own bloody body against herself. How fucking dare he make her vulnerable and then tease her about it. 

“What have you done?” Her teeth were clenched, fists balling up and ready to fight her way out. 

“Suggest a better plan,” he replied smoothly and the Doctor wasn’t prepared for the sudden urge to kiss that smug little smirk off his face. No, stay angry. 

There was a buzz in her pocket and her phone started to ring.  _ Shit, please be good news.  _

“Sorry,” she tried to play it cool. “Need to change the ringtone. Left it to voicemail. Probably asking if I’ve had an accident in the last five years.”  _ Yes I have and one of those being having forgotten to take my damn pills. And you, of course.  _ “They hate it when you give them a list.” She used her sonic to find the location of the Master’s TARDIS whilst sending another message: get back to the apartment and stay inside. 

“Why didn’t you die when the Kasaavin took you?”  _ Do you really want me to die or do you just want me scared? Because I’m already terrified and close to dying anyway so just hurry up.  _

“Me and Yaz, both time travellers fizzing with Artron energy and my DNA not matching the rest of humanity, we confused them, and I don’t think they’re as stable in this dimension as they’d like to be.” She was ranting. She shouldn’t be. She should be carting him downstairs, dragging him away from a potentially impending Nazi attack. “What deal have you made with them?” 

“I showed them and Barton what was possible.” He whispered the last part into her ear, making her shiver. He always knew what to do to make her weak for him. 

The Master was walking away again so the Doctor spun hard on her heel and instantly regretted it. Her vision swam again, the pounding in her head and ears becoming too much. Her body suddenly felt too weak to stand up, collapsing against the railing. She grasped the metal, trying to remain upright. The Master continued to talk but she couldn’t hear him, not properly. 

_ Dum-dum-dum-dum. Dum-dum-dum-dum. _

Her heartsbeat echoed in her ears and she could see why the Master went insane. 

He kept making sounds. Some sort of grand speech about maximum chaos or some other bullshit. 

She was losing her grip and soon was on the floor, headache getting worse alongside her mood. 

“When does it stop? The lies, the killing? Those big speeches. You know what? Just stop in general because I don’t have the time or the mental capacity or even the-“ a gloved hand was on her cheek and the Doctor opened her eyes in shock. She couldn’t see much beyond the black spots but once they cleared, she saw the Master crouched in front of her. 

His eyebrows were furrowed, lips set in a firm line as he gazed over her from. The leather was warm, a refreshing contrast to the chill of the Parisian air. She closed her eyes. 

“Doctor, look at me.” His authoritarian tone left no room for the Doctor to bite back a retort so she lazily opened them once more. “What’s wrong?”

All of her anger disappeared as he talked to her, caring for her. She could tell him. 

“I’m anaemic.” There was a sharp intake of breath, the Master connecting the dots. “I haven’t been able to take my medication…it’s back in my TARDIS.” 

“Shit,” was his whispered response and the Doctor felt herself be pulled to her feet. The Master pulled her to his chest, a secure arm around her waist as she felt the tingles of a teleport. 

The pressure of it nearly made her pass out; she swayed against the Master’s chest, her head thinking onto his shoulders. Her knees buckled and she put all of her body weight against him. There was a fumbling about and soon the Doctor was being picked up and carried bridal style. 

Her eyes were still closed, not willing to look at the bright lights of what she assumed was his TARDIS. Instead, she weakly snuggled her head into his shoulder, a hand coming up to grab the shirt he wore. 

“Almost there, love.” The Doctor felt so stereotypically feminine; swooning at the sight of her ‘lover’ and becoming faint whenever there’s a mild inconvenience (this inconvenience being the lack of iron in her bloodstream). Though the term of endearment was nice - it made her insides feel warm and fuzzy. 

There was a hiss of a pressurised door opening and soon the Doctor was placed onto a bed. Moving her heavy legs, she felt the sides of the bed and came to the conclusion she was in the Medbay (the Master always did have the nicest beds). She heard the rustling of coats and jackets being taken off and soon there was an arm lifting her upper body up. 

“What are you-“ 

“I’m going to need to give you a transfusion, so I need this coat off. No matter how good you look in it,” he whispered and pressed a kiss to the spot underneath her ear. She gasped at the tenderness and tilted her head to the side, wanting more of his attention. 

_ ‘Mm, you always have it, darling.’  _ Blast, she must’ve forgotten to close the connection between them. Might as well take advantage of this. 

_ ‘So what’s this whole ‘kill the human race’ thing for?’ _

_ ‘To get your attention of course. Always so busy and never enough time for your husband.’ _

The Doctor’s jacket was off now and she shivered at the cold air. She whimpered. The Master shushed her gently before starting to undo her laces, taking each boot off with care. A blanket was then placed on top, covering her toes all the way up to her neck, the Master tucking her in, bar one arm. A flick of a switch and soon the blanket started to warm, making the Doctor moan in appreciation. 

_ ‘You always have my attention…I just thought…I thought you were dead this time. Proper dead. Missy…’ _

_ ‘Shush, love. I’ll always come back to you, trust me on that.’  _

His presence soon left and though she was warming up nicely, she still wanted him closer. Her eyes were still closed and the pillow was so comfortable. The headache was still there but the warmth of the blanket was lulling her to sleep. 

A hand stroked her head and bopped her nose. The Doctor scrunched her face and opened one eye. 

“Not the time for napping, sweetheart.” The Master’s hair was tussled, the top bottoms of the uniform shirt opened. There was a hint of the bruise that she had left on him the other night. 

‘ _ Was it real?’ _ she asked into the small connection they now shared.  _ ‘O, I mean. That night in the outback .’ _

_ ‘Yes. A hundred times yes, my love.’  _ He leant forward and placed his lips onto her forehead. It was an act of kindness this face had never seen nor felt. It made her insides melt and her body tingle (or was that the lack of oxygen?) and she hummed into pleasure, closing her eyes once again. ‘ _ I wanted to be with you in every way.’ _

_ ‘I miss you. I miss you so much it hurts.’ _

The Master gave no reply. Instead, he pulled away from their embrace and started to prep her for whatever medical mojo he needed to do. He untied the bow tie and loosened the top few buttons. A hand stroked the column of her throat, pressing a little on an artery. It made her blood rush once he relented and her back arched, moaning ever so quietly. It was a pleasurable threat that O would never do; it was her Master who could make her feel so alive _.  _

Next, he rolled up the one sleeve that wasn’t pinned by the blanket and was soon up to her armpit. The chill of the Medbay made her arm hair stick up. 

‘Brace yourself.’ And with his warning, the Master stabbed what the Doctor could only assume was a big fucking needle. She winced and gritted her teeth, trying not to cry at the two seconds it was in her arm. She felt a cold tingle as the infusion flooded her system and hissed when the needle was extracted out of her flesh. A plaster of some kind was then placed onto the injection site and her arm was then placed underneath the blanket. 

“That should get your levels back up.” There was another kiss pressed to her forehead and then to one placed onto her nose, her cheeks. The Master gave up on whatever teasing game he was playing and dragged his lips over her ear.

“I think I’ll keep you on board again, just for a little while longer to see if we’ve got your iron back up,” he whispered huskily. 

That sounded nice. A little, tiny break from everything. Her body felt heavy and sleep was calling for her. 

“Fam…Kasaavin…” she was trying to tell him to sort out his shit but her brains were shutting down, one by one and a well deserved nap was on the horizon. 

“Of course, love. I’ll sort it out.” There was another kiss, though this time onto the pulse point below her jaw. “Just rest.” 

And the Doctor did rest, long enough for the Master to grab her Fam from certain death and to reverse engineer the Kasaavin mess. 

She woke up, well rested, iron levels up and she was ready to leave for a new adventure. 

Her husband had another idea. Let’s just say, the Master made sure she knew how much he loved her, mind, body and soul. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Leave some love, kudos, comments. 
> 
> Be kind, stay safe 
> 
> ~Gremlin


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